Spark: We're Going Home
by AZSkyrider
Summary: The curse is coming, and Emma is going... "Henry may well be the price Regina must pay, but for us the forfeit is Emma, the loss of her light and the hope she brought to us all..." "We drive quickly away from Storybrooke; the little impossible town that was, that is, that soon won't even be a memory..." Stand-alone sequel to 'Spark in a Sea of Grey'.
1. Killian

**Disclaimer: Title borrowed from Blue October's song: 'She's My Ride Home'. I don't own any of them but I wish I did.**

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**KILLIAN:**

The curse is coming...and Emma is going.

The acrid smoke swirls up behind us, consuming and obscuring everything in its path. Soon it will draw us all in, away from the world in which we so desire to remain. The strength of magic roars and shrieks in its terrible advance, and in a few moments we'll all be consumed, pulled back into the world we came from. But for now, the only pull I feel is over the town line to where my eyes strain to see every last glimpse I can manage of the yellow-hued vessel bearing Emma away, my hope with her.

"_Emma, you have to go…"_

I wish with all my soul those words had been untrue, but they aren't. She has to leave, to carry herself and her son to safety…and she must leave us all behind. Henry may well be the price Regina must pay, but for us the forfeit is Emma, the loss of her light and the hope she brought to us all. Even as I stand here now, desiring nothing more than to go after her, I remain, doing the only thing any of us can do for her now to compensate for both her loss and ours: survive…and escape this bloody curse Pan sent down on us.

"_I know the real reason you did this. You did it for Emma."_

Aye…I did. All of this, everything since the moment I returned to Storybrooke with that accursed magic bean, all I've done is for her, for her son, for her family, and for her chance at happiness. And now I watch her go, leaving it and us behind as we become the victims of this altered curse. She's leaving, and it feels as though she's taking the heart and soul of this place with her.

"_My gift to you is good memories…and Henry? You'll have never given him up. You'll have the life you've always wanted."_

"_But it won't be real!"_

"_Your past won't. But your future will be."_

Regina's words echo in my head like some sort of cruel taunt. Her past will be extinguished, not even a faint trace remaining. She'll be gone, and every moment we've spent together will have not existed at all to her, every moment spent with her that's changed me, molded me from being the empty man full of hatred and revenge that I once was into someone entirely different will fade. It's the cruelest of punishments and probably no less than I deserve in the scheme of things…but that admission does nothing to dull the pain of it.

"_You've touched the lives of everyone here."_

Her mother's words are truer than she knows…but it won't be real to Emma now. None of it will, and I wonder if anything will ever feel real to _me_ again after this—now that the only person in hundreds of years that could manage to make my hate-clouded life become so clear will be absent from it. I wonder, too, if that clarity will fade when she does, or if it will remain…yet another unintentional gift from an unwilling saviour. But this will be _all_ _too_ real very soon. In a moment she'll vanish and so will we, thrust back into the world we came from…the world we never should have left at all. Safe, alive, breathing; but I fear most of us will be broken in some way or another.

The only thing that keeps me rooted in this spot and at least…accepting of my fate, is this: that Emma—my Emma—my heart, will be happy. She has a future ahead of her, and a bright one at that, full of happy memories of a life spent with her son. She may not remember us, remember me, or anything about the last few months that have so changed me...us. But she'll have a future, she will have Henry, and she won't recall the pain of this moment. She'll not know to mourn what was unjustly ripped from her right when she was at the cusp of attaining it forever.

"_There's not a day will go by that I won't think of you."_

"_Good."_

Pain sears my heart, but I somehow feel a ragged shred of hope still burning in me; because she may never remember, but I _always _will.

I will remember _for_ _her_. And someday perhaps, she'll remember again.

I tilt my head back and watch as the smoke descends upon us, the cold, heavy caress of it curving around my face to allow its bittersweet tang to begin an overwhelming assault my other senses. It sweeps us up like a purple tide, sweeping me and the rest of her family far away from the woman who now holds my heart.

Our fleeting moment in her life is now done, and all of us—at last—are Going Home….


	2. Emma

**EMMA:**

_I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't._

I have to.

_But I can't. How can I even think of doing this? _

I must. For Henry.

We both get in the car, Henry in the passenger seat and me behind the wheel. The goodbyes we just shared are punching a gaping hole right through my chest. I feel empty already and we haven't even left yet. Wonder how I'll deal with that down the road?

_You won't have to. Because you won't remember._

No memories…right. But that's the point though, isn't it? I won't remember, but I should. Every moment of these past years should be so clear in my head that I'll never forget a single face or word of it. But I can't: the curse will make sure of that.

My eyes slide to the right, mechanically checking Henry's seat belt, making sure he's secure before I start the engine on the bug. It turns over once and dies, and for once in my life, instead of praying that it starts I almost pray that fate will intervene and that it won't start at all. I turn the key and try again.

There's a groan, and then a steady, growling hum begins to vibrate the entire vehicle around us as the engine comes to life.

_Damn. Damn, damn, damn…I can't do this._

Gritting my teeth, I throw the car into gear and sit with my hands on the wheel, grasping so hard my knuckles are white. I have to do this. For Henry, for myself, for…for _them. _

This has to happen this way, so their sacrifice so long ago in the Enchanted Forest won't be for nothing. I can't help thinking how useless it seems to have waited twenty-eight years for me to break a curse the first time, just to let it _un-break_ now and screw things up again, just when things were finally going _right _for a change. How's that for irony? The very thing I saved them from is the thing that's going to save them now, and it'll still keep us apart for the rest of our lives. And the kicker is…Henry and I won't remember a single thing about any of it.

What hurts the most right now is how close we all thought we were. Knowing and hoping we were winning—_finally winning_—only to end up with _this_ as the only viable solution.

Henry turns around beside me, glancing back behind us to have a last look. I won't look. I can't. Because if I ever once let myself see them back there being swallowed up by that cloud of magic, I won't be able to keep driving away from them…but I need to keep going. I really need to get us out of here right now.

My breath is stuck somewhere in my chest, like I can't get enough air. My lungs feel like they're full of something thick and clingy that won't let enough oxygen in. I'm suffocating, drowning. And suddenly I realize that I _am_ drowning...in my own unshed tears.

_Damn._

I force my eyes forward as the hole in my chest gets bigger, wider, emptier, more painful. The words of goodbye turn over and over in my head, and my mind grasps at them, the only leverage I dare to allow myself as we speed farther and farther away from home. Soon I won't even have those words to cling to. We move away from Storybrooke, the little impossible town that was, that is, that soon won't even be a memory.

The hole in my chest throbs and I feel myself take a ragged gasp, tears finally dripping down my face. Henry turns to look at me, glancing from me to the road ahead of us over and over again; his own sadness is almost tangible. God, this…this is impossible. It's wrong! It's backwards! It _sucks_.

We drive, it seems like forever. The hole in my chest aches more and more the farther and farther away we get. We're leaving everything back there, everything but each other. We still have that, thanks to Regina.

My heart throbs, air coming in by short gasps, my hands are clenched around the wheel as we get farther and farther from…from….

_Home…?_

_Oh! _Pain twists suddenly in my heart and I suck in a quick series of breaths, trying to take air into my lungs as quickly as I can to ease it. Oh, what _was_ that? My chest burns like I've been underwater too long...or like it does after I've had a good hard run. I breathe in the fresh air blowing in the open windows, the oxygen combating the burn in my lungs. After a moment the ache fades away and I sigh, shaking my head to clear it. I pry my hands out of their death grip on the wheel and wonder what could have brought on the sudden pain.

Warmth moves on my cheek and I wipe a stray tear away in disgust. I'm crying? Well that's ridiculous. That—whatever it was—that made my heart feel like it was being ripped in two. Was it the music? No…nothing's playing, the radio's been off for miles. Huh. Weird. Well anyway, it was stupid whatever it was. I shove the feeling away with a shrug, blaming it on the tiredness that comes of a long trip as we keep driving.

My eyes move to the right to glance at Henry, looking out the windows with a wistful sort of smile on his face, bright eyes staring out ahead of us to take in the road we're on. I smile softly at him and he turns his head, catching my eye and grinning back happily.

_God, how I live for that smile._

We'll be home in a few hours. This road trip of ours was a good idea. We both had a week or so of vacation, so we just piled in and took off to see Maine, stopping to explore a few quaint little towns on our way. It was fun, a nice change to get out of the city for a while and have a little adventure of our own. But it'll be nicer to get back home.

Home…to Boston.

Maybe we'll rent a movie and camp out in front of the TV for the night. There's still one day left of both of our vacations, so why not? It'd be a nice cozy way to end a great week.

I glance to my right again and watch my son's bright eyes taking in the scenery around us. God, I love him. It's just us, just him and me like it always has been ever since I first laid eyes on him eleven years ago. I knew the moment I saw him that my heart was his, that it belonged entirely to that tiny little bundle of soft beautiful innocence that had somehow been a part of me for nine months. That was when I knew we had to be together, and I couldn't give him up.

So here we are, and we're doing all right. I wouldn't have my life _any _other way right now. To hell with anyone else; I only need Henry, and he only needs me.

We make quite the team, he and I.

_"We make quite the team…"_

The words echo hollowly in my head, spoken in a deeply accented male voice I've never heard before in my life. But it sends a sharp, throbbing lance of sadness briefly across my heart anyway and my smile fades a bit. Something moves on my cheek and I reach up to see what it is, encountering the wet warmth of another freshly shed tear.

_What…?_

This again?! What the hell! What's brought on all this crying all of a sudden? I shake my head. I don't know what's up with me today. Probably hormones mixed with the strain of a good long road trip, even as relaxing as it's been. I'll be fine once we get back home.

_Home…finally._

We're Going Home.

_~Finis._


End file.
